Ohio Wardens Superintendents Association Donates to Harmony House
Shelbie Smith, warden of Belmont Correctional Institution, selected Harmony House as this year’s Ohio Wardens Superintendents Association charity recipient.
The association donated $8,500 to Harmony House Children’s Advocacy Center through its annual charity auction.
BECI Warden Shelbie Smith hands the check to Harmony House executive director Jay Jack. ©Barnesville Area News Company Photo.
Smith attended the association’s conference, where Ohio’s 28 prison wardens gather annually. During the conference, attendees participate in a charity auction to raise money for a selected organization.
“I would like to keep it in my community,” Smith said. “We at the prison at Belmont have been working pretty closely with Harmony House the past few years. I see the things they do for the community and that ’s why I chose Harmony House.”
Belmont Correctional Institution and Harmony House have partnered on several community initiatives, including Easter and Thanksgiving fundraisers to feed families, food drives and back-to-school backpack programs.
Smith said Harmony House’s work supporting children and families is important to the community.
Harmony House Children’s Advocacy Center is a child-focused facility that brings together prosecutors, law enforcement officers, child protective services workers, mental health professionals and victim advocates to help ensure children are not further traumatized by the systems designed to protect them.
The center conducts forensic interviews with children and special-needs adults in a nonleading manner while law enforcement and child protective services observe, reducing the need for multiple interviews.
Harmony House also provides referrals for medical treatment and therapy, as well as in-house therapy services, all free of charge.
In addition, the organization participates in community outreach programs, sending representatives to schools and local fairs to provide prevention education.
Harmony House Executive Director Jay Jack said the donation is especially meaningful after the organization lost funding from the United Way.
“Places like this make a big difference to kids because we have no judgment, we allow them to have a voice,” forensic interviewer Robert Scott Steele said. “They do a lot better when somebody is listening to them.”
The donation will help fund the house’s community education program and staff salaries at the organization’s locations on National Road in Wheeling and Pogue Road near the Belmont County fairgrounds at St. Clairsville.
“This shows how the community thinks the work that we do is important, and the number of kids that we see on a yearly basis amazes us,” Jack said. “The camaraderie between agencies feels good. It truly validates what we do.”
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